In the Name of the Father

It’s curious that Sony didn’t wait a couple more weekends, until Father’s Day, to release After Earth. After all, it’s all about daddy issues, centering on a space cadet whose father is a legendary serviceman, who finds himself marooned along with the old man on a post-apocalyptic Earth and fighting for survival. That the pair are played by Jaden Smith and his real-life pop, box office titan Will Smith, is only supposed to add resonance to the movie’s exploration of its daddy issues. Indeed, the Smiths are old hands at this sort of thing, having played father and son before, to great acclaim, in The Pursuit of Happyness.

In Hollywood, such nepotism is no sin; in fact, it’s often a selling point. Not only do we get to compare the scion to the sire and see whether the genes for talent, attractiveness, and charisma lined up, but we also get a glimpse at what the off-screen relationship between father and child may be like. (Or, at least, we think we’re getting such a glimpse; the movies certainly do little to discourage us from thinking so.) Sometimes, in fact, we may learn more than we really want to know about the stars’ family lives.

Here are 10 such movies, featuring famous fathers co-starring with their actual kids, that deliberately smudge the line between performance and private life, all for our entertainment.